


A Moment in Zephiel's Day

by David375



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-10-27 06:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10803582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/David375/pseuds/David375





	1. Chapter 1

It was a boring day for Zephiel. Nothing much going on around the palace. Hardly any new updates on the construction projects he’d ordered started some weeks ago, so there wasn’t even anything to boss around any of these insufferable humans for. He sat on his throne, munching on hors d’ouvres and looking over his personal blade, Eckesachs, in hopes of at least finding a speck of rust that would give him the motivation to re-polish the blade’s edge for the third time this week. Unfortunately, though, the blade was as spotless as he always kept it.

Suddenly, a sense of urgency filled his mind. It was a sense that he’d experienced before on rare occasions, and it only meant one thing:

Wings of Mercy 3. Fae was in trouble.

Zephiel launched out of his throne, knocking over the tray of snacks as he quickly re-attached his sword’s scabbard to his side. Fueled by his very rage, a portal appeared before him; on the other side knelt his beloved Fae, whom he had adopted as his own child after his soldiers had accidentally razed the secret manakete village of Arcadia where she had lived. His armor clattering with each step, he walked through the portal into the school playground, kneeling before his daughter. Looking up at the newcomer, she quickly moved to hug the armored man, still bawling her eyes out.

“Shhh, my Fae, what happened?” the man asked, holding the little purple-haired girl tight. Then, he saw it: a cut on her arm. “What happened here? It’s just a small cut, my dear.”

Still sniffling, Fae pointed toward a young blue haired girl, hardly ten years old, standing by her father. “Fae was cut by that sword, and it hurt bad!” she managed to say through her uncontrollable crying. In the girl’s hand was the sword in reference, a slender blade with a circular hilt, oddly enough, with a hole in the center.

“A Falchion, I’d wager,” he growled to himself. Standing up once more, he rubbed the crying girl’s head once more as she hugged onto his leg. “Wait here, my dear.”

Once Fae had let go of his leg, Zephiel walked over to the man. “Your name!” he roared, getting right into the man’s face.

“Chrom,” the man replied, glancing down at his daughter nervously. Threaten Attack 3 was taking its toll on him, Zephiel could see. “Listen, I’m sorry, it was an accident. I was showing my daughter some basics and your daughter walked up to try and play, and Lucina here accidentally hit her.”

Zephiel glared down at the terrified blue-haired girl, then to the blade she held. Pretending to back off peacefully, he drew his Eckesachs with lightning speed and brought it down on the girls’ sword. With a loud crack of rent metal, the Falchion gave way, splitting in half as it sprayed metal shards all over the ground. Before Chrom could object, he planted his Eckesachs’ pommel into the man’s chest, sending him sprawling to the ground. He walked over and placed a heavy armored boot on the man’s chest, holding the tip of his blade to his victim’s throat as he knelt down to the man’s face. “Never, EVER, let you or your daughter find yourself near my Fae, you disgusting excuse for a human, or next time… well, there won’t be a next time, if you truly have a brain larger than a roach,” he growled.

Receiving a mortified nod, Zephiel stood up and kicked the man in the ribs, rolling him over. His work done, he stowed his sword and walked back over to Fae. “Come, Fae, we will get that cleaned up quickly when we get home, and then you can play with your sister Nowi,” he said, picking the girl up and placing her on his shoulder spaulder. With his daughter, he walked toward the gate to the road home, somewhat happy that the day hadn’t gone wasted after all...


	2. Chapter 2

 

“Is it… a wyvern?” Fae asked.

“No, it is not!” Zephiel chuckled. Ever since the Summoner had given him this game, it had been Fae’s absolute favorite. He had said the guessing game, named “Who is it?”, had been a staple of his childhood, and had since recreated for his daughter by replacing the portraits of humans with many different forms and types of dragons. The Summoner was one of the few humans Zephiel truly appreciated, alongside Corrin, Sophia, and, to a degree, that boy Robin whom his daughter Tiki spoke so highly of – although he rarely ever showed it. Especially not around Robin. If word got out that he even so much as approved of his daughter being with someone like him, he would never live it down.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the throne room door. Glancing up from his game with Fae, Zephiel saw that silver-haired, twenty-something-year-old boy clad in purple poking his head through the parted doors. “Come in,” he ordered, gesturing for him to step into the room. He eyed the young man with scrutiny, watching as Robin looked around the room. “What is it?”

“The summoner is hosting some event at his home, something he called a ‘movie’,” Robin replied, gently shifting the tome he carried under his left arm. “He invited everyone, so I thought I would ask if Tiki would like to go. Is she home?”

Zephiel squinted menacingly, trying to get a reaction out of the boy. Normally Threaten Attack 3 left most men shaking in their boots at Zephiel’s presence, but not so in this case. Seeing that he couldn’t quite get the usual reaction out of the boy, he looked over to one of his maidservants standing attentively along the wall. “Fetch Tiki and let her know Robin is here,” he said. Nodding silently, the maid disappeared out of the room.

“Thank you, sir,” Robin said, bowing in his direction out of respect.

“Right. How long have you been… seeing my eldest daughter?” he asked. The thought that his daughter would knowingly invest in another human life despite the complications of manakete longevity still baffled him, but he best figured he would rather have her happy above all else. “She speaks highly of you. Says you have some sort of dragon-like qualities.”

“A few months now, sir,” Robin admitted, looking away slightly embarrassed. “As for what she sees in me… I can’t quite say.”

“Daaad, it’s your turn!” Fae cried, frustrated that he was holding up her game.

“Right, right, terribly sorry,” Zephiel said, immediately returning his attention to his board. Only a few tiles remained: a species of wyvern and several species of western dragons. “Is it a western dragon?” he asked, hoping that he might be able to win on the spot if he could eliminate everyone short of the wyvern.

“Nope!” Fae giggled.

With a defeated, overdramatic sigh that fueled Fae’s laughter, Zephiel knocked down the single wyvern tile that was left standing. “Your turn,” he said.

“Is it… Ooh, Fae knows! Fae thinks you have a Yellow Reaper!”

“Great job!” Zephiel said, flipping over the wooden tile to show her that he had the dragon tile she had named. “Now, go find your sister Nowi while I talk to this boy here, alright?

“Okay!” the little purple-haired girl replied, happily grabbing the two boards of flip-up tiles and box of character tiles before making a beeline for the door. As Fae disappeared through the doorway, the maid returned, leading Tiki into the room. Zephiel watched as she and Robin exchanged a warm smile that made him suspicious.

“Very well,” he said, nodding toward Tiki. He knew how old she was, a fact that sometimes made him question just quite who had the authority in their father-daughter relationship. He also knew what kind of passive-aggressive destruction she could bring to his life, as he found out once before when he’d successfully deterred her last boyfriend, one of those disgusting Falchion wielders by the name of Marth. “You may go to see this ‘movie’ with the Summoner. I expect you to be back as soon as it is over, no later than sundown. If I hear of anything odd,” he said, glaring at the silver-haired magician, “… you can thoroughly expect tonight to be your last. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Robin replied, slowly backing away toward the door.

Zephiel watched as the two lovebirds disappeared through the door, only daring to let out a sigh once he knew they were well out of earshot. “Damn,” he groaned to himself, rubbing his eyes. “I swear I can already hear that know-it-all Narcian’s endless snark from here. Why Robin and not some manakete boy like that young man Corrin? Even the half-bloods he’d seen on occasion like Nils would be more acceptable. Surely she would be happier with someone like them… damn it…”


	3. A Moment in Zephiel's Holiday

**Dad Zephiel Day 3: A Moment in Zephiel’s Holiday**

It had hardly occurred to Zephiel that something could go wrong today.

At that moment in time, he found himself walking the streets of the city with Fae on his right and Nowi on his left, eagerly pulling him in both directions toward brightly colored stalls as they tried to get his attention. While taking his two younger adopted manakete daughters out to enjoy the festivities was one motive for stepping away from his work, the other took much higher precedence in his mind; keeping a watchful eye on Tiki and her boyfriend Robin, only a ways ahead of him as they jumped from stall to stall, enjoying each other’s company. He felt quite conflicted about seeing them so close together: on one hand, it gave him joy to see Tiki happy, as well as a sense of pride, like he had accomplished something as a father. On the other hand, he knew that there was only one person in this world who could break her heart, and whoever that happened to be, he swore to himself, would be feeling Eckesachs at their throat before his daughter’s tears left her eyes. Therefore, it was his duty to—

“Hey dad, can I get some candy?” Nowi said, interrupting his train of thought. She was tugging him toward a booth where an older gentleman was doling out lollipops, colorful rock candy, and small bags of nuts and dried fruit coated in candy shells from a rack at the back of the booth in exchange for coins from the children who flocked to the counter.

“Of course,” he said, letting her pull him and Fae over to the booth. “Let’s not spoil your dinner, though.”

“Yeah. Hi there!” she said, turning her attention to the elderly man. “Lemon rock candy for me, please!”

“Ooh, ooh, Fae wants the dragon lollipop!” the little purple-haired girl said, pointing at the red candy that mildly resembled a wyvern’s head.

“And anything for you, sir?” the man asked, retrieving the two candies from the rack behind him and setting them on the counter.

“…Some candy almonds for me, I suppose,” he said, eyeing the colorful hard-shelled nuts for a moment. “Just a handful or two.”

“That’ll be three silver coins, then,” the man said, using a small metal scoop to shovel a few dozen nuts into a small paper bag.

Zephiel reached underneath his sword’s scabbard, pulling up a small concealed purse he kept tied to his belt. Fishing out three coins, he set them on the counter and scooped up the candy, distributing it between the girls. Turning back to the road, he silently cursed himself as he scanned the crowded streets, unable to find Tiki or Robin once more.

Suddenly, Fae began to cry. He looked down to see the girl rubbing her eyes with her sleeves. As he knelt down to comfort her, he realized that she wasn’t holding the lollipop any more.

“I’ll get him!” Nowi cried fiercely, jamming her rock candy into her mouth as she took off running into the crowd after some mysterious thief.

“Nowi, get back here this instant!” Zephiel barked, but it was of no use. Seeing that the girl was gone, he scooped Fae up onto his shoulders and broke into a sprint, his heavy armor clattering with each heavy step as he ran. Weight down by the heavy armor, it wasn’t long until he was winded, though.

His senses suddenly stirred. Wings of Mercy was active. His blood curdled every time this sensation came over him, because he knew it meant one of his daughters was in trouble. A sky-blue portal opened before him, beckoning him through. Gathering his breath, he stepped forward, one hand supporting Fae on his shoulders, the other resting on the pommel of his sword.

*clank*

Stepping through to the other side, he found himself standing in a dirty alley lined with trash and dirty wooden milk crates, ending in a single door a ways down the alley. With a burst of light, the shadow of Nowi’s dragon form loomed over him, briefly scaring the young man with orangish-brown hair and a wide black cloak that stood before him. Most importantly to him, though, was the dagger that had bounced off of his chest armor as he’d stepped through, clattering to the stone street below.

“Give that lollipop back!” Nowi boomed, the voice of her dragon form filling the alley like an opera hall.

“Sorry, I can’t do that,” he said, sticking the candy into his mouth. “Hypoglycemic. Was about to pass out without it.”

Zephiel crouched down to collect the dagger, looking over its construction. “You dared to throw such a thing at my daughter?” he growled, tossing the blade aside and reaching for Fae to set her down. “You’ll pay for that!”

“Not today, pops,” the boy said, sprinting straight at the armored man. Zephiel raised his Eckesachs and swung, but the blade found nothing but air to slice through. The young man dropped to his knees, diving under the swing and rolling to his feet behind the armored man. “Get her another one for me!” he called, darting past Nowi into the street.

With an earsplitting crack, the boy hardly made it three feet out into the street before a bolt of lightning ripped through the air, sending him sprawling to the ground with every muscle twitching uncontrollably from the power that coursed through his body. With a sigh, Robin stepped around the corner of the building into the alley, tucking a yellow-covered tome under his arm. Tiki was right behind him, glancing up at her younger sister in her dragon form.

“Well, I’d say that tipped the scales nicely,” Robin said, glancing back at the incapacitated thief. “He didn’t hurt anyone, did he?”

With a flash of light, Nowi reverted to her human form. “Nope! Thanks, Robin!” she said cheerily.

“What happened here?” Tiki asked, crouching down to pick up Fae.

“That thief stole Fae’s lollipop,” Zephiel said, nodding toward the thief. “Now it’s time he pays.”

“Dad, don’t you dare!” Tiki said, glaring at her father. “We’re out in public. You can’t just execute people wherever you want!”

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Normally he would never have let off someone who had stolen from him with anything less than a beating within inches of their life. But to steal from his daughter? Death was the only suitable option in his mind. Still, though, it was best he didn’t do anything too drastic. Very few held anything less than disdain for him for his less than normal social standards, and he knew it.

“Oh, well if a lollipop was all that was stolen, she can have this,” Robin said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a small paper bag, withdrawing from that another, identical lollipop. “We didn’t know you were planning to bring Fae and Nowi out to see the market, so we picked up some candy for them. It was Tiki’s idea,” he added, glancing over to his girlfriend.

Seeing the lollipop, Fae let out a happy laugh and took it from Robin, jamming it into her mouth at once. “Fae thinks Robin is the best brother ever!” she cried.

“Well, that will do,” Zephiel said. Seeing that everything alright, he stowed Eckesachs and took Fae back from Tiki. “Alright. I am sorry we disturbed your afternoon. Nowi and I will take Fae back home for now, perhaps play a board game. Have a good afternoon.” Setting Fae down, he gently took her hand and guided her out of the alley, with Nowi hot on his heels as they headed for home.


End file.
